Shortly
after midnight poison gas leaked from a factory in Bhopal, India,
owned by the Union Carbide Corporation. There was no warning, none
of the plant's safety systems were working. In the city people woke
in darkness to screams with the gases burning their eyes and lungs.
Whole neighbourhoods fled in panic, many people were trampled, others
convulsed and fell dead. People lost control of their bowels and
bladders as they ran. Within hours thousands of dead bodies lay
in the streets. Read
a survivor's account of "that night". More background
here.